2 .

There is no doubt that traveling into space is one of the greatest adventures (冒险经历) a person can have. However, living in space is not always as     1     as it appear on TV or in movies. In real life, sometimes astronauts stay in the International Space Station for several     2    . The station is not very big, so the astronauts don’t have a lot of room to     3     around. What’s more, the spaceship that carries astronauts into space is even much     4    . Astronauts eat, sleep and do their work in its very small space. To keep themselves healthy and happy, astronauts must follow strict rules.

However, astronauts can     5     have fun and relax after a hard day’s work. They can watch movies, play cards or talk to     6     friends and family on earth. Some astronauts even play musical instrument. That’s a     7     talent, no matter where you live!

They enjoy doing silly things     8     they are under weightless conditions, such as somersaults (翻筋斗). They run in circles up and down walls, and across the ceiling (天花板). They laugh as their hair sticks out in all     9    . Astronauts may have a serious job, but they must also have a good     10     of humor to deal with the pressures of living in space.

3 .

Every year on March 14, mathematicians and math lovers around the world celebrate Pi Day. Pi is the ratio (比率) of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The idea is ________. Even Middle schoolers can easily understand it. But the exact value of pi is difficult to calculate (计算). We only know it starts with 3.1415926. The ________ goes on endlessly. The digits (数字) never repeat in a pattern (有规律重复).

People have ________ the value of pi for thousands of years. In the fifth century, Zu Chongzhi correctly calculated pi to seven decimal places (小数位). For 900 years after him, nobody ________ to calculate the number any further. That’s why pi is also known as “Zu’s ratio.”

Fast-forward to 2021. Some Swiss scientists calculated pi to 62.8 trillion (万亿) decimal places. It just took them 108 days, but it was a new ________.

In fact, we ________ need more than 15 decimal places of pi. Then why did scientists still work out the 62.8 trillionth digit? Was it a ________ of time?

Jan de Gier is a mathematician in Australia. He says that calculating pi is like the Olympic Games. It is not useful in itself, but it teaches ________ about what is possible. We may never finish calculating pi.

Pi mirrors (反映) life itself, ________ our lives are also full of unknowns. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Although we may ________ many problems, many surprises are waiting for us, too. Keep your heart towards the sunshine.

4 . Ten years ago, I set out to study luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others always experience ill luck.

Many people volunteered for my research. Over the years I interviewed them, watched their lives and had them take part in my experiments (实验).

I carried out a simple experiment to discover why there were differences in their ability to spot (发现) opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photos were inside.

I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying, “Tell the researcher you have seen this and win $50.” This message took up half of the page and was more than two inches (英尺) high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but unlucky people tended to (倾向) miss it and lucky people tended to spot it.

Unlucky people are just more nervous than lucky people. They are busy looking only for what they need and this stops them from noticing the unexpected. As a result, they miss out on opportunities.

Lucky people tend to be more relaxed and open. They can see everything that is in front of them, rather than just what they are looking for.

My research shows that lucky people live by several principles (原则). Here are some of these principles: Listen to your gut instincts (直觉) —they are often right. Be open to new experiences and break your normal thought patterns. Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well. See yourself being lucky before an important meeting or phone call.

5 . Sitting in the garden, Newton watched an apple fall from a tree. He began to wonder if the same force that pulled the apple down also kept the moon-circling the earth. Newton believed it did. He called it “gravity (重力)”.

This story has become one of the most popular examples of “eureka” moments. But when we cheer for the great discovery, the whole process of creative thinking shouldn’t be forgotten.

Newton studied mathematics for long to have a better understanding of the world. He always enjoyed finding new ways to solve problems. The falling apple was only the fruit of years of hard work before. It also started the train of thought that continued for the next twenty years.

Newton began to examine “gravity” carefully. He experimented. Then he studied the results and used what he had learned to do new experiments. In 1687, the greatest scientific work ever written came out.

The whole process of creative thinking works the same in our life. In school, we prepare ourselves for the right moment. Once the moment comes, we catch it and then keep on working in the years to come. It takes much to get the fruits of creative thinking, but the sweetest fruits will be ready for those who wait the longest.

We all have those moments when bright ideas hit us.     1     We believe creative thinking is the falling apple of Newton, but we seldom notice that creative thinking is in fact a process.

    2     Newton watched an apple fall from a tree while sitting in the garden. He began to wonder if the same force that pulled the apple down also kept the moon going around the earth.     3     He called it “gravity (重力)”. But when we cheer for the great discovery, the whole process of creative thinking shouldn’t be forgotten.

Newton studied math for long to have a better understanding of the world. He always enjoyed finding new ways to solve problems.     4     It also started the train of thought that continued for the next twenty years. Newton began to examine “gravity” carefully. He did lots of experiments (实验). Then he studied the results and used what he had learned to do new experiments. In 1687, the greatest scientific work came out.

    5     In school, we prepare ourselves for the right moment. Once the moment comes, we should catch it and then keep on working. It takes much to get the fruits of creative thinking, but the sweetest fruits will be ready for those who wait the longest.

Science is the best way we have of finding out about the world. Scientists have ideas about the way things work. Science tests those ideas. Sometimes the test will show that the idea is not correct. If the idea passes the test, it adds to our understanding.

Scientists make predictions (预言). They say something about the future. They might say ‘if I do this, then I think that will happen’. Isaac Newton was a famous scientist. When he shone white light through a glass prism, he saw a spectrum (光谱) of different colors. Newton predicted what would happen if he shone the spectrum through a second prism. He thought the colors would come together and he would see white light again. He tried it. He shone a spectrum through a second prism. He was right. The colors made white light. He discovered that white light is made up of many colors.

It’s important to test your ideas. It’s important to plan a fair test. A scientist wondered how a tree grows. Where does all that material come from? Was it from the soil?

He planted a young tree in a pot. He weighed the pot, the dry soil and the tree at the start of his test. Years later, the tree had grown tall. It had many branches and leaves. The scientist dug it up. He weighed it. The tree weighed far more than when it was young. Then he weighed the pot and the dry soil. It weighed just a bit less. Where had all the new tree material (材料) come from? He knew that trees use water, and a gas from the air, to grow.

The planet Mars is the     1     and most similar planet to Earth. It is very interesting to     2    . For example, Mars has seasons with     3     weather, but other planets have the same temperatures all year round. Was there life on Mars?   

To find out, scientists need to know if Mars ever had water. In 2004, two robot explores （探测器）, or “rovers”, called Spirit and Opportunity were     4     to look for signs of water. These rovers can drive over rocks and all kinds of rough ground. They can also use cameras and send     5     back to Earth.     6     of all, the two rovers found chemicals and patterns （图文） in the rocks that were probably made by water. Then, they moved to another area and found other rocks which may have been created by water. Now scientists think there was probably water on the planet long ago. Today they are still not sure if there was life on Mars. They     7     need more information to decide. The discoveries of the two rovers answered some old questions, but they also     8     many new ones.